| WORK | RESUME | ABOUT | CONTACT |
| KINETIC AND INTERACTIVE | |
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"Cuttlefish Dress" interactive wearable. 2011. click image for larger image This defensive dress can release a plume of ink-like custom helium ballons mimicing the defense of cephalopods including the cuttlefish. Cuttlefish are squid-like marine mollusks known for their ink-squirting defense mechanism and rapid color-changing abilities. The dress hides a dozen helium balloons in the folds of a full navy skirt. When the wearer raises her arms in alarm the balloons are released allowing the wearer to make a quick getaway while her pursuers are lost in a bubbly fog. Two fans resting near her waist blow the balloons toward the attacker as the wearer quickly backs away into a safer area. This dress was created for the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial at the Andy Warhol Museum and is camouflaged in the guise of a cocktail dress. This piece was funded by a grant from The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. |
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"Skink Dress" interactive wearable. 2010. click image for larger image My third defensive dress mimics the skink's ability to sacrifice its tail when attacked. My soft-sided-velcro dress is covered with over a hundred detachable velcro-ended fabric slivers that stick to the dress and allow the wearer to successfully slip free of unwelcome grasps. The dress's limb-loss defense, like the skink's tail-loss defense, requires physical engagement from another party before the appendage(s) can be detached. Created for World Maker Faire at the NY Hall of Science, the garment's hidden talent is camouflaged in the guise of a cocktail dress. |
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"Porcupine Dress" interactive wearable. 2010. click image for larger image + video The second in my series of defensive gowns, the Porcupine Dress allows the user to imitate the defensive quill-erecting behavior of a porcupine. Over thirty oven-baked, hand-painted quills prick up when the wearer detects a threat and bends their back in an almost fetal position. In this way the user braces themselves for the possibility of an attack while simultaneously decreasing the probability of an attack by the sudden and alarming display. Created for the Geek Arts and Green Innovators Festival at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the garment's hidden talent is camouflaged in the guise of a cocktail dress. |
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"Blowfish Dress" kinetic interactive wearable. 2008. click image for larger image + video photo credit Amy Snyder. Exploratorium. 2008. While browsing through a book of marine images, I was inspired by the sudden and quite comical defense system of blowfish. I began to muse of ways in which humans could benefit from and appropriate these behaviors and so came up with this project. My defensive dress has four rip-stop nylon bladders connected to four muffin fans that inflate when I make a fist and connect the two black leads snaking around my arm into my hand. Appearing long, dark and elegant at rest, the dress transforms as the bladders inflate causing the outer layer to slip back and expose the vibrant teal skirt beneath. Created for the Exploratorium wearable art show, 2nd Skin, this piece is designed to camouflage to a cocktail party and to inflate like a blowfish when I'm intimidated. The dress, also called "a N.I.C.E. dress", was covered by CNet and published in a book entitled Future Fashion: Innovative Materials and Technology by maomao Publications. |
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"Single Flock" kinetic sculpture. 24"x60". 2007. click image for video Heavily influenced by the sinuous animals of the sea, the simple movement of linked tubes and seductive motion of fabric in the piece encourage the viewers to understand the work as both sculpture and creature. Each individual component is comprised of a series of linked copper tubes ending with a thin slice of sheer red fabric. These 20-25 components are then attached to a gear system controlled by a single motor-- the "brain" of the creature. The dynamic and rhythmic movement of the linkages, resulting in the naturalistic sway of the fabric produces an illusion of a life; shimmering, swaying and forever trying to slither its way off the wall. |
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"Electric Grass" interactive installation 18"x 16". 2005.
By using the weak electric charge of the body, viewers can run their hands over the grass bed to reveal a pattern of lights in the adjacent panel. The grass acts as a weak conductor of electricity allowing a visitor's touch to complete the circuit and produce a personalized light display. |
| VIDEO |
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"Monster" video installation. 11:58 minutes on loop. 2007. click image for video In this piece, "Monster", I create creatures that move by no external manipulation but by the rules of fluid dynamics and gravity. Employing these natural forces, I am able to mimic the subtle movements of drifting sea creatures and induce the perception of life in the seductive, sinking forms. |
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"Monster(1)" video. 5 min. 2006. click image for video Stemming from a passion in curvaceous natural forms and flows, I have created a video that explores the formal qualities of fabric in water. In my video, the sensual underwater movements of fabric entrance the viewer and relate to images of similarly moving aquatic creatures. Perception of the identity of the forms seem to flicker between fabric to sentient fabric and then sentient creatures. Image of video at Pittsburgh's PNC Park stadium jumbotron. |
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"Double" video. 5:00 min. 2004. click image for video Two lonely and abandoned Siamese twins from alternate dimensions travel remarkably similar paths through remarkably different spaces. Who knows where their wanderings will lead! A collaboration with Claire Hoch |
| ON PAPER |
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"Coatimundi-unculus" gouache on paper. 11"x17". 2010. click image to enlarge Part of my Animal Homunculus Drawing Series, 'Coatimundi-unculus' is a caricature of a coatimundi where the most nerve-ending-packed part of the body is enlarged. My series hopes to visually compare the differences in sensory and motor sensitivities in animals. |
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"Raccoon-unculus" gouache on paper. 11"x17". 2009. click image to enlarge The first in my Animal Homunculus Drawing Series, 'Raccoon-unculus' is a caricature of a raccoon where the most nerve-ending-packed part of the body is enlarged. My series hopes to visually compare the differences in sensory and motor sensitivities in animals. |
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"Hungry Heads" gouache on paper. 36"x50". 2007. click image to enlarge This series focuses on the canonic, and highly expressive facial structure of Mogul Indian miniature paintings. When I first tried to emulate the paintings, I was interested in how much expressive change occurred in each face from the subtlest movements of my brush. It was then that I decided to focus on the head, coming up with these amorphous blobs that hungrily bite at food in their path. |
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"Head Forms" gouache on paper. 8"x 9". 2007. click image to enlarge Stemming from my interest in indian miniatures, I began to explore the intricacies of their canonic faces. I appreciate the subtleties of expression and the precision of mark that I found in the miniature paintings and combined those ideas with my own obsession with flow and form. |
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"Vortex" ink on paper. 17.5"x 25". 2006. click image to enlarge |